A BBC South Inside Out investigation will tomorrow show how a multi-millionaire has made a fortune by misleading his hard-up customers.

James Benamor owns the Richmond Group, which employs almost 300 people in Bournemouth, and his personal wealth is estimated at £77million.

He recently gave away thousands of pounds when he played The Secret Millionaire in a Channel 4 documentary.

But the Inside Out programme, at 7.30pm on BBC One South, will show how Mr Benamor makes money from a simple scam.

His companies, which include Tenant Loans and Advantage Loans, offer to arrange loans for people with a poor credit history.

Half-a-million customers have signed up in the past year and many of them pay a £50 brokerage fee.

But when the paperwork comes through, the clients don’t get the loans they were expecting. Instead, they are simply sent the phone numbers of other banks and lenders.

Joanne Amorello agreed to pay the £50 fee because she was convinced that she was going to get a £500 loan.

She tells Inside Out: “I had already booked things to do with the kids and I even rang the housing office to say my rent arrears are going to be paid.”

Disabled pensioner Shirley O’Sullivan was also certain that she was going to get a loan: “The way they talked to me I was 100 per cent sure they were trying to help. They seemed such nice people and I thought ‘they understand’.”

Mr Benamor denies misleading clients. He says his companies offer a loan brokerage service which is independent and works only on behalf of clients to find the best loan for them: “We will always inform clients that we do not guarantee loan amounts or APRs which ultimately are offered by lenders.”

Inside Out wanted to check whether this was made clear to customers, so presenter Joe Crowley made a series of loan applications. On each occasion, the sales staff gave the impression that he had been accepted for a loan.

Said Joe: “I told them I was on benefits and they still seemed quite happy to offer me large sums of money. I wanted to see how far they would go, so I made some outrageous demands.

“On one call I told them I wanted to borrow £10,000 to gamble on the horses and on another call I asked for £15,000 to invest in the stock market.

“They said yes to whatever I asked, because the company just wants to take the £50 fee.”

Andy Sherriff, from Bournemouth Trading Standards, said the phone calls were a cause for concern: “I think the circumstances suggest it could easily be misleading. People are not being frank, they are not being honest with you.”

Under the Consumer Credit Act, Mr Benamor has to give dissatisfied customers a refund. But several customers who spoke to Inside Out had struggled to get their money back.

Mr Benamor said that his companies provided clients with the best loan options that were available to them in the UK: “In cases like these where our clients are unhappy with loans found by us we have a simple refund procedure which requires the client to write in to cancel their service and request a refund.

“This is clearly explained to our clients, however according to our system no request was ever received.

“We have now refunded all of the clients in full. We aim for client satisfaction in all cases and are sorry that in this instance the customers in question were unhappy with our service.

“We value any feedback regarding our customer experience and are always distressed to hear if people haven’t received the service they required.”

Andrew is a 24 year old plumber from West Lothian. He has been singing from a very young age but has never had the confidence to perform publicly until he was 13 when he and his friends entered a school talent competition. Andrew now performs regularly in his local area and helps to organise charity nights with his friends to raise money. Andrew is a trained plumber and lives with his parents above their pub. Andrew is very close to his grandparents who he says have inspired him to be a good person.

Judges Comments:

No buzzers and three yes’s from the Judges

Amanda – Amazing voice. You have the likeability factor.

Simon – You walked on with zero confidence and almost zero personality. Your confidence grew, it was fantastic to watch.

Piers – Great voice and personality. Grow in confidence.

Nick Knowles and Myleene Klass are to co-host BBC One’s new weekend entertainment show, Last Choir Standing.

They will be joined by a panel of music experts – Russell Watson, Sharon D Clarke and Suzi Digby – as they scour the country for choirs that combine the power, passion and performance necessary to be crowned the nation’s favourite choir.

The show will see Myleene return to her first love, music. She began playing the piano and her grandfather’s violin at the age of four. She studied Voice at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music where she later graduated.

She continues to be a prominent name in the music world, with a top-three solo album to her name.

Nick Knowles is well known to TV viewers as the host of DIY SOS and City Hospital. A talented presenter, producer and director, he has also presented the National Lottery gameshow Who Dares Wins.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, he went to Nairobi for Comic Relief and presented a heart-rending report from Zambia for Sport Relief.

Myleene said: “I’m really excited to be involved in Last Choir Standing and the search to find the nation’s favourite choir.

“We’re going to be seeing such a wide range of choirs with different styles and personalities – there will definitely be something to suit everyone’s taste.”

Nick said: “The public will be treated to some fantastic performances from all the choirs, and it will ultimately be up to them to decide who will be the Last Choir Standing.

“This will be entertainment television at its best – getting the whole country involved.”

Myleene and Nick will be joined by a dynamic panel of experts who will be on hand to offer their opinions on the competing choirs.

After a period out of the limelight due to ill health, Last Choir Standing heralds the return of much-loved tenor Russell Watson to primetime television.

Russell was the first British male singer to take the number one spots in both the UK and US classical charts simultaneously.

Having sold more than seven million albums worldwide he has enjoyed number one success in both the British and US charts, and is credited with opening opera to a much broader audience.

Sharon D Clarke will join Russell on the judging panel.

Best known for her role as Dr Lola Griffin in Holby City, Sharon originated the role of the Killer Queen in the stage show We Will Rock You, for which she won the What’s On Stage Best Supporting Performance Award, alongside an Olivier nomination.

She is passionate about choral music and was recently on the judging panel for the Opal Choir Project which saw 300 children from 10 inner-city secondary schools performing at the Royal Albert Hall.

Suzi Digby OBE – choral conductor and principal of The Voices Foundation, which she created – completes the judging panel.

Suzi has an international reputation as a conductor, and is a regular judge at choral festivals and competitions, including BBC Radio 3’s Choir Of The Year and the Coleraine Music Festival in Northern Ireland. Suzi is the choral guru and is determined to get the whole country singing.

Last Choir Standing starts on BBC One in June 2008.

From 60 choirs at the auditions, the panel of judges will decide which 15 will go through to the studio heats.

Six choirs will then make it through to the live shows where the judges and the public will vote each week for who they want to save until there is only one – the Last Choir Standing.